Thursday, 7 June 2012

Corporate media Bias
For much of recent history media has been available to the masses by way of print and more recently radio and television. all these forms of media can be quite expensive to operate therefore it is no surprise that most forms of media that fit into these three categories are run by large corporations.
for example operators of "TV3" and "Four" (MediaWorks) is owned by the Australian equity firm "Ironbridge Capital" in fact almost all media in New Zealand is Australian owned at least with European and American company also holding stakes in key broadcasters such as "The Radio Network". A quick search through wikipedia reveals that all the broadcasters i researched except for TVNZ are foreign owned. with so much corporate intervention in the New Zealand media the alleged bias towards protesters and human rights groups becomes understandable but despite this it is certainly not excusable. many who wish to defend the mainstream media point out that the perceived bias simply stems from the desire to sell their product however i believe that it is more complex than this as basic economics alone is never a justification for any companies behavior. if we come back to the question of "Ironbridge Capital" the australian investment firm mentioned in the first point this company is reputed to take a active role in the running of "Media Works" (least we forget 3 news) therefore the connection between the faceless corporate bureaucrats and one of New Zealands most popular news outlets is quite close. With very clear corporate control of this media outlet and links that can be made between corporations and other media concerns in New Zealand the alleged bias can almost be proven to stem from the corporations that control the media outlets.